Equilibrium are more than your standard folk metal band, much much more. With the release of their 5th studio album and 4th since signing with Nuclear Blast René Berthiaume and his rag tag bunch of Bavarians have stepped it up a level. Armageddonhas all the hall marks of a fairly standard folk metal album, with themes of battle and war, but there’s an intensity and seriousness on this album not heard before. As with past releases, most of the lyrics are sung in German. This sends Robert “Robse” Dahn’s already brutal vocals to yet another level. When someone yells at you in German not only do you have no idea what they are saying, it’ll scare the shit out of you, so when Dahn’s death growl hits it’s like, holy fuck, that’s just cool!

The album kicks off with the spoken word track ‘Sehnsucht’ (translation: ‘nostalgia’). It’s an uplifting track with marching drums and plenty of symphonic keyboards to get you in the mood. Second track ‘Erwachen’ continues in the same vein, yet with a bit of Euro synth pop added to the mix, it’s almost like heavy metal dance music. It’s a theme which permeates throughout the album, combining complex arrangements of guitars, drums, bass intertwined with keyboard synth and the odd flute thrown in for good measure.

It’s not all doom gloom and harbingers of destruction. Equilibrium show their humour with the addition of one of the strongest tracks on the album, the sung in English ‘Born To Be Epic’. Coming in at the halfway point of this 11 track opus it breaks the album up nicely. Thundering drums with galloping guitars and huge symphonic keyboards suddenly give way to some almost jaunty synth. The song is huge, almost epic, and catchy as hell.

Equilibrium have crafted an album full of cool, catchy tunes that makes you want to bang your head to the heavy as shit guitars, tap your foot to the big hooks, groove to the rhythm and want to go off reserve like you’re at a European progressive trance gig – all at the same time. There must something in northern European water that brings out almost virtuoso inventiveness, and Equilibrium can comfortably take their place alongside their Scandinavian brethren and fellow creative geniuses such as Vintersorg and Witherscape.

Folk metal isn’t everyones cup of tea, but take my advice, grab a goblet of Armageddon, take a big swig and drink in all its metal goodness. Guaranteed not to give you a hangover.